Britain's Coptic Christian community 'scared to be in UK' after Libya killings

 

Egypt: Attacks against Coptic churches, part of a plan to expel Egypt's Christians

         

Mob torches Christian shops in Egypt ahead trial

      

Coptic TV Live Stream - Watch Coptic Orthodox TV Channel Live Stream

  Coptic TV (CTV) is the official Coptic Orthodox TV station broadcasting in Arabic via satellite to Coptic Christians in Egypt and in North America.

The Dire Warning From British Royalty: Christianity Is Starting ‘to Disappear’ from the Middle East

 

 Prince Charles visiting a Syrian Orthodox Church in west London

Egypt 'worst for women' out of 22 countries in Arab world

 

Egypt is now the worst country for women's rights in the Arab world, according to a poll of gender experts.

The study found sexual harassment, high rates of female genital mutilation and a growth in conservative Islamist groups contributed to the low ranking.

Egyptian Christians to be allowed to build Churches without permit of president

 

Copts will be able to build their churches in Egypt freely and will not have to wait a long time for the president's permit. The rule was passed last week in Cairo by the Committee of 50, the assembly which edits alterations of the constitution adopted by Islamists in 2012.

Egyptian Christian Arrested for the Crime of Forming a Facebook Group

Alber Saber, photo from his blog.

Egyptian blogger and computer science student, Alber Saber, has been arrested and charged with insulting Islam.  He is being held in while the investigation continues.

Amid new attacks, Egypt's Copts preserve Christian heritage

 

  photo shows a fresco in the Anba Bishay Church the at the Red Monastery located in the desert on the edge of the Nile River valley, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Cairo. Little known and rarely visited, the Anba Bishay Church offers a striking example of how Egyptís Orthodox Coptic Church is jealously guarding its heritage against formidable odds _ whether decades of neglect, discrimination by the Muslim majority or the threat of violence by Islamic militants, who have gained significant power since the 2011 ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The protection of its heritage took on greater urgency when 40 churches were wrecked, burned or looted in a pogrom-like wave of attacks in August, blamed on Islamic militants. Coptic leaders call it the worst such attacks in centuries.(AP Photo/Manu Brabo) 

THE RED MONASTERY, Egypt — Locked inside a 6th century church in a desert monastery are some of the jewels of early Christianity — ancient murals in vivid pinks, greens and reds depicting saints, angels and the Virgin Mary with a baby Jesus, hidden for centuries under a blanket of black soot.

EGYPT: Coptic Christians hold protest after coming under attack at monastery in southern Egypt

Egyptian security and church officials say hundreds of Coptic Christians visiting a southern monastery have protested after coming under attack by unidentified assailants who stole their money and personal belongings and beat them.

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EGYPT: Egypt's Christian pope blasts Islamist president

CAIRO (AP) — The leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church on Tuesday blasted the country's Islamist president over his handling of recent deadly sectarian violence, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo.

The remarks by Pope Tawadros II underscore rising Muslim-Christian tensions in Egypt. They were his first direct criticism of President Mohammed Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt's Orthodox Christians. They are also likely to fuel political turmoil that has been roiling the country since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

Egypt is already divided between two camps, with Morsi and Islamist allies in one and moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals in the other. The political schism is essentially over Egypt's political future after decades of dictatorship, a divide that has been compounded by a worsening economy and tenuous security.

An open conflict between Morsi's government and the church could add a new and potentially explosive layer, pushing Egypt to the brink of civil strife.

EGYPT: 9-Apr-13 - Egypt's Christians Call For Peace After Attack On Orthodox Cathedral

CAIRO, EGYPT, (CNA) .- Christian leaders in Egypt appealed for calm after a mob attacked St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo on Sunday during the funeral of four Coptic Christians killed in sectarian clashes....

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EGYPT: Shape-Shifting Jesus Described in Ancient Egyptian Text

 

A newly deciphered Egyptian text, dating back almost 1,200 years, tells part of the crucifixion story of Jesus with apocryphal plot twists, some of which have never been seen before.

Written in the Coptic language, the ancient text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus' crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text  — and it puts the day of the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening, something that contravenes the Easter timeline.

The discovery of the text doesn't mean these events happened, but rather that some people living at the time appear to have believed in them, said Roelof van den Broek, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who published the translation in the book "Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ"(Brill, 2013).

Copies of the text are found in two manuscripts, one in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City and the other at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the translation comes from the New York text, because the relevant text in the Pennsylvania manuscript is mostly illegible. [Image Gallery: 2 Ancient Curses Deciphered]

--Pontius Pilate has dinner with Jesus

While apocryphal stories about Pilate are known from ancient times, van den Broek wrote in an email to LiveScience that he has never seen this one before, with Pilate offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus.

"Without further ado, Pilate prepared a table and he ate with Jesus on the fifth day of the week. And Jesus blessed Pilate and his whole house," reads part of the text in translation. Pilate later tells Jesus, "well then, behold, the night has come, rise and withdraw, and when the morning comes and they accuse me because of you, I shall give them the only son I have so that they can kill him in your place."

In the text, Jesus comforts him, saying, "Oh Pilate, you have been deemed worthy of a great grace because you have shown a good disposition to me." Jesus also showed Pilate that he can escape if he chose to. "Pilate, then, looked at Jesus and, behold, he became incorporeal: He did not see him for a long time ..." the text read.

Pilate and his wife both have visions that night that show an eagle (representing Jesus) being killed.

In the Coptic and Ethiopian churches, Pilate is regarded as a saint, which explains the sympathetic portrayal in the text, van den Broek writes.

--The reason for Judas using a kiss

In the canonical bible the apostle Judas betrays Jesus in exchange for money by using a kiss to identify him leading to Jesus' arrest. This apocryphal tale explains that the reason Judas used a kiss, specifically, is because Jesus had the ability to change shape.

"Then the Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him [Jesus], for he does not have a single shape but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man ..." This leads Judas to suggest using a kiss as a means to identify him. If Judas had given the arresters a description of Jesus he could have changed shape. By kissing Jesus Judas tells the people exactly who he is.

This understanding of Judas' kiss goes way back. "This explanation of Judas' kiss is first found in Origen [a theologian who lived A.D. 185-254]," van den Broek writes. In his work, Contra Celsum the ancient writerOrigen, stated that "to those who saw him [Jesus] he did not appear alike to all."

--St. Cyril impersonation

The text is written in the name of St. Cyril of Jerusalem who lived during the fourth century. In the story Cyril tells the Easter story as part of a homily (a type of sermon).  A number of texts in ancient times claim to be homilies by St. Cyril and they were probably not given by the saint in real life, van den Broek explained in his book.

Near the beginning of the text, Cyril, or the person writing in his name, claims that a book has been found in Jerusalem showing the writings of the apostles on the life and crucifixion of Jesus. "Listen to me, oh my honored children, and let me tell you something of what we found written in the house of Mary ..." reads part of the text.

Again, it's unlikely that such a book was found in real life. Van den Broek said that a claim like this would have been used by the writer "to enhance the credibility of the peculiar views and uncanonical facts he is about to present by ascribing them to an apostolic source," adding that examples of this plot device can be found "frequently" in Coptic literature. 

--Arrest on Tuesday

Van den Broek says that he is surprised that the writer of the text moved the date of Jesus' Last Supper, with the apostles, and arrest to Tuesday. In fact, in this text, Jesus' actual Last Supper appears to be with Pontius Pilate. In between his arrest and supper with Pilate, he is brought before Caiaphas and Herod.

In the canonical texts, the last supper and arrest of Jesus happens on Thursday evening and present-day Christians mark this event with Maundy Thursday services. It "remains remarkable that Pseudo-Cyril relates the story of Jesus' arrest on Tuesday evening as if the canonical story about his arrest on Thursday evening (which was commemorated each year in the services of Holy Week) did not exist!" writes van den Broek in the email.

--A gift to a monastery ... and then to New York

About 1,200 years ago the New York text was in the library of the Monastery of St. Michael in the Egyptian desert near present-day al-Hamuli in the western part of the Faiyum. The text says, in translation, that it was a gift from "archpriest Father Paul," who, "has provided for this book by his own labors."

The monastery appears to have ceased operations around the early 10th century, and the text was rediscovered in the spring of 1910. In December 1911, it was purchased, along with other texts, by American financier J.P. Morgan. His collections would later be given to the public and are part of the present-day Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The manuscript is currently displayed as part of the museum's exhibition "Treasures from the Vault" running through May 5.

--Who believed it?

Van den Broek writes in the email that "in Egypt, the Bible had already become canonized in the fourth/fifth century, but apocryphal stories and books remained popular among the Egyptian Christians, especially among monks."

Whereas the people of the monastery would have believed the newly translated text, "in particular the more simple monks," he's not convinced that the writer of the text believed everything he was writing down, van den Broek said.

"I find it difficult to believe that he really did, but some details, for instance the meal with Jesus, he may have believed to have really happened," van den Broek writes.  "The people of that time, even if they were well-educated, did not have a critical historical attitude. Miracles were quite possible, and why should an old story not be true?"

Crucifix Battle: British Airways to pay 32,000 euro after sacking woman for wearing cross

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that British Airways violated an employee’s right to freedom of religion by firing her for wearing a crucifix at work. The Strasbourg court awarded the Coptic Christian 32,000 euros in compensation.

 

“The domestic authorities failed sufficiently to protect the first applicant’s right to manifest her religion, in breach of the positive obligation under article 9,” the ECHR said in a majority ruling, citing Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Nadia Eweida, a practicing Coptic Christian, was awarded €2,000 ($2,665) in compensation by the court after it ruled against an earlier decision by UK courts. A further €30,000 (almost $40,000) was awarded in legal costs. The British Airways check-in clerk was asked to leave her job in 2006 after refusing to remove her crucifix.

A UK employment tribunal ruled that Eweida had not been subjected to religious discrimination. However, by the time the court made its ruling, British Airways had already changed its uniform code on visible items of jewelry to allow symbols of faith to be worn. 

“The fact that the company was able to amend the uniform code to allow for the visible wearing of religious symbolic jewelry demonstrates that the earlier prohibition was not of crucial importance,” the judges said in a comment on British Airways’ police change.

The ECHR ruling said the British court had failed to balance the competing issues in Eweida’s case. While the employer wished to protect a certain corporate image, Eweida desired to display her religious beliefs. Though British Airways had a legitimate motive, “the domestic courts accorded it too much weight,” the ECHR’s judgment said.  

With Eweida’s case as precedent, Strasbourg was not quite so benevolent to another complainant. 

Shirley Chaplain, a nurse from Exeter, was transferred to a desk job by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust for refusing to remove a confirmation crucifix she had worn for 30 years. Though the case appears to be almost identical to Eweida’s, the judges ruled unanimously that the British courts had resolved Chaplain’s issue fairly. 

The ECHR judges ruled that the request by the hospital authorities to remove the cross for reasons of health and safety to prevent the spread of infections “was inherently more important,” and that the hospital was “well placed to make decisions about clinical safety.” 

UK Prime Minster David Cameron said he was “delighted” by the ECHR’s ruling, and that the “principle of wearing religious symbols at work has been upheld.”   

But Keith Porteous-Wood of the National Secular Society said the idea of a ban on wearing crosses was “absolutely risible,” because hundreds of thousands of people around the UK wear crosses “with no problem at all.”

Porteous-Wood said he was delighted with the ruling because “we don’t want to see a hierarchy of rights with religion at the top.”

Egypt's army foils attempt to attack church on Coptic Christmas

Egypt's Coptic minority is celebrating their first Christmas under the rule of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, amid fear and uncertainty for their future.

 

Egyptian army forces stationed in the Sinai Peninsula foiled an attempt early on Monday to bomb a church in Rahaf, a city in the border with Gaza Strip, according to a military statement.

Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, a spokesman for Egypt's armed forces said, “the armed forces managed to stop two cars, a Toyota Doble Cabina and a Daewoo Lanos with no plates, in an area between Rafah church and a military unit under construction.”

The military spokesman added that one of the vehicles carrying “masked elements” was able to escape. He said weapons seized in the other vehicle included sacks of TNT, two automatic weapon, 50 rounds, five electric detonators and an RPG launcher.

Earlier, Egypt’s official MEAN news agency reported that “army units foiled an attack against the Rafah church at 1:00 am (2300 GMT Sunday) and seized a car packed with explosives and weapons near the church.”

Egypt's Coptic minority celebrates Monday its first Christmas under Islamist rule and amid a climate of fear and uncertainty for their future, although President Mohamed Mursi has pledged to be the “president of all Egyptians.”

In September, residents and officials reported that several Coptic families from Rafah had fled from the Sinai peninsula town that borders the Gaza Strip after receiving death threats from Islamists.

Egyptian security sources suggested, meanwhile, that the planned attack could have been aimed at a military camp under construction near the church which has been targeted in the past by Islamist militants.

They said the church has been lying abandoned for the past two years after it was torched in the aftermath of the countrywide uprising that toppled the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the planned attack but one security source said the perpetrators were “probably radical Islamists whom security forces have been tracking for months.”

One of the two cars found behind the church

Mursi, who hails from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, visited the Sinai peninsula in October to meet with and reassure Coptic families, telling them that “your security is our security”.

Egypt's Copts, who make up six to 10 percent of the country's population of 83 million, have regularly complained of discrimination and marginalisation and have also been the target of numerous sectarian attacks.

One of the worst incidents of violence occurred on January 1, 2011 when 23 people were killed in an attack on a Coptic church in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Sinai, a scarcely populated peninsula home to lucrative tourist resorts in the south and shadowy Islamist militants in the north, is a major transit point for arms smuggling to Gaza which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.

Security in the desert and mountainous region collapsed after the uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Since his downfall, several militant attacks have targeted police and soldiers, including a brazen August 5 ambush on an army outpost that killed 16 soldiers.

The military launched a wide-ranging campaign after that attack to flush out militants, but drive-by shootings have continued.

 

Amid Instability In Egypt, Coptic Christians Flee To U.S.

Coptic Christians will celebrate Christmas on Monday, and many will do so outside their native Egypt. Since the revolution there, their future in the country has looked uncertain, and many are resettling in the United States.

Their population in the U.S. may have grown by nearly 30 percent, according to rough estimates. One church that has felt its membership swell with new arrivals from Egypt is in the Queens borough of New York. St. Mary and St. Antonios Coptic Orthodox Church boasts more than 1,000 members, according to Father Michael Sorial.

"I would say probably in the past two years, our community has, if not doubled, quite possibly more than doubled in size," Sorial says.

The story is the same at churches around New York, New Jersey and Southern California, the centers of Coptic life in the U.S. since the early 1970s. Nationwide, researchers estimate that as many as 100,000 Copts have joined a pre-revolution population of around 350,000.

They're leaving continued instability in Egypt — uncertain economic prospects combined with ongoing violence.

Mariana Bolis is from Assiut, Egypt, home to a big concentration of Copts. Her father was a victim of this violence.

"He was a priest, and he was killed at home. So after this accident, I decided to leave Egypt and to go anywhere," Bolis says.

They call it an accident, but the family is clear about what happened: They say he was murdered by Muslims.

Bolis arrived in Queens with her husband and two children in mid-October. Like many of the new arrivals, they arrived on tourist visas and applied for asylum. In 2011, the number of U.S. asylum cases from Egypt doubled over the previous year.

Expenses here are hard even for well-off families like Bolis'.

"The rent is very high here in New York. Around 80 percent of my savings will go to the rent," says her husband, Gameel Gergis. "So it's a big problem for me."

He needs to get recertified to work as a pharmacist. Many other new arrivals end up taking jobs delivering food or stocking bodega shelves.

Fleeing Egypt

The Queens church is expecting a spike in immigration on the heels of a new constitution in Egypt that many say leaves Copts and other minorities unprotected. Ashraf Aweeda, a lay leader at St. Mary and St. Antonios, says his phone is ringing off the hook.

"I don't even know these people who call us — they getting their numbers from people they know in Egypt," Aweeda says. "They call and they ask us, 'How much money we should bring with us? What do we need to bring with us? What type of paperwork we need?' Everything. They wanted to know everything about living here."

The church is beefing up efforts to help people resettle — solve visa issues, get work and find housing, which is no small feat in New York City's tight real estate market.

Despite the challenges, most new arrivals plan to stay put. Many are from the educated middle classes that have traditionally anchored the community. But more and more are poorer, rural and less educated — facts that increase the struggle to start a new life.

At St. Mary and St. Antonios, the story of the Nativity has added poignancy this year. Fleeing danger, the story goes, Jesus, Mary and Joseph flee into Egypt. With a few days left before Coptic Christmas, many of these Copts are thanking God for helping them flee to the U.S.

--Reporter Bruce Wallace has the story of new immigrants flocking to a church in Queens, New York:

BRUCE WALLACE, BYLINE: Cymbals keep time with chanting at a recent service at St. Mary and St. Antonios Coptic Orthodox Church in Ridgewood, Queens. It's the end of Kiahk, the Coptic month before Christmas. A priest cooks his clouds of incense out of a golden sensor. People file in and out. Children shuffle between moms sitting to the right of the church and dad's across the aisle to the left.

TEACHER: They (inaudible) because of the census they went to Bethlehem.

WALLACE: In the basement the church elder walks 60 college-age church goers through stories of Jesus' birth. The small room is overflowing, so is the church.

FATHER MICHAEL SORIAL: I would say probably in the last two years our community has, if not doubled, quite possibly more than doubled in size.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Father Michael Sorial says the small church now has over 1,000 members, its numbers ballooning with new arrivals from Egypt. The story is the same at churches around New York, New Jersey and Southern California, the centers of Coptic life in the U.S. since the early 1970s. Nationwide, researchers estimate that as many as 100,000 Copts have joined a pre-revolution population of around 350,000. They're leaving continued instability in Egypt, uncertain economic prospects combined with ongoing violence.

Mariana Bolis is from Assiut, home to a big concentration of Copts. Her father was a victim of this violence.

MARIANA BOLIS: He was a priest and he was killed at home. So after this accident I decided to leave Egypt and to go anywhere.

ROSE: They call it an accident but the family is clear about what happened. They say he was murdered by Muslims. Bolis arrived in Queens with her husband and two children in the middle of October. Like many of the new arrivals, they came on tourist visas and applied for asylum. In 2011 the number of U.S. asylum cases from Egypt doubled over the previous year.

Expenses here are hard even for well-off families like Bolis'. Gameel Gergis is her husband.

GAMEEL GERGIS: The rent is very high here in New York. Around 80 percent of my savings will go to the rent. So it's a big problem for me.

ROSE: He needs to get recertified to work as a pharmacist. Many other new arrivals end up taking jobs delivering food or stacking bodega shelves. The church expects a spike in immigration on the heels of a new constitution in Egypt that many say leaves Copts and other minorities unprotected. Ashraf Aweeda is a lay leader at St. Mary. He says his phone is ringing off the hook.

ASHRAF AWEEDA ST. MARY COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH: I don't even know these people who call us. They getting the numbers from people they know in Egypt. And, yes, they calling to ask us, how much money we should bring with us? What do we need to bring with us? What type of paperwork we need? Everything. They want to know everything about living here.

ROSE: The church is beefing up efforts to help people resettle, solve visa issues, get work and find housing. No small feat in this city's tight real estate market. Despite the challenges, most new arrivals plan to stay put. Many are from the educated middle classes that have traditionally anchored the community. But more and more are poorer, rural and less educated, facts that increase the struggle to start a new life.

At St. Mary and St. Antonios, the story of the Nativity has added poignancy this year.

TEACHER: She gave birth in Bethlehem and then the angel appeared to her to go where? Egypt.

ROSE: Escaping danger, the story goes, Jesus, Mary and Joseph flee into Egypt. With a few days left before Coptic Christmas many of these Copts are thanking God for helping them flee to the U.S. For NPR News, I'm Bruce Wallace in Queens.